Rated: R for for language including some sexual references, and brief drug use.

Synopsis

In SOUND OF MY VOICE, Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius), a couple and documentary filmmaking team, infiltrate a mysterious group led by an enigmatic young woman named Maggie (Brit Marling). Intent on exposing her as a charlatan and freeing the followers from her grip, Peter and Lorna start to question their objective and each other as they unravel the secrets of Maggie's underworld.

As Maggie breaks down the defenses of the group members with a cunning combination of cruelty, empathy and personal magnetism, the line between investigation and indoctrination begins to blur, and Peter and Lorna starts to wonder if there could possibly be any truth to her story. When the initially skeptical Peter's devotion to Maggie begins to grow, he is asked to perform an impossible and illegal task for her, and Lorna desperately looks for help in saving him from Maggie's machinations.

Fox Searchlight Pictures presents, in association with 1737 Films / Skyscraper, SOUND OF MY VOICE with a cast including Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius and Brit Marling. The film is directed by Zal Batmanglij and co-written by Zal Batmanglij & Brit Marling. The producers are Hans Ritter, Brit Marling and Shelley Surpin with Eric Richter and Victoria Guenier as executive producers. The creative team includes cinematography by Rachel Morrison , production designer Scott Enge, edited by is Tamara Meem, music is by Rostam Batmanglij and costume designer Sarah de Sa Rego.

About the Production

In SOUND OF MY VOICE, Zal Batmanglij's debut feature, documentary filmmakers Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius) infiltrate a small clandestine group intent on filming an expose of a mysterious and charismatic woman named Maggie (Marling), but instead find themselves drawn into her inner circle. Maggie, whose fragile beauty masks a steely determination, has convinced her followers she is a visitor from the future and that they have been chosen to survive an imminent disaster--but only with her guidance.

SOUND OF MY VOICE writer/director Zal Batmanglij and writer/star Brit Marling met while attending Georgetown University, where their mutual love for cinema was nurtured. "We watched the same films, read the same film criticism and had a lot of the same film professors," says Marling. "We discovered we were both interested in films that are lyrical, beautiful, substantive, complicated and dark. But we were equally interested in the elements that are more typical in blockbuster movies -- suspense, action, sci fi and genre elements usually told on a large canvas. The question became, why can't we have a little bit of both? Even if a movie is complex and has subversive ideas, can't it still be entertaining?"

In part, SOUND OF MY VOICE is an exploration of that idea, says Batmanglij, whose goal was to create something that works equally well as a "popcorn movie" and a provocative and serious film. "I've never understood why you can't have an art house thriller," he says. "Why can't you have a Hollywood movie that's also thought provoking or a small indie movie that's a high concept idea? Our film entertains even as it asks the audience to do a lot of the legwork."

"We're trying to make the movies we want to see," he continues. "What matters to me is that a film asks smart questions about what it means to be alive today. Everything is changing. I'm not a futurist and I'm not a doomsday person, but we are in the midst of great change and stories can help navigate that change."

To Marling, the film is in some ways an old fashioned mystery thriller. "You're presented with a puzzle and you slowly try to get to the center of it," she says. "On its face, it's the story of a couple, Peter and Lorna, who are trying to make a documentary film about this mysterious woman who claims she's from the future."

As writers, the pair cites influences ranging from THE TERMINATOR to Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's "cinema of moral anxiety" and Paddy Chayefsky's blistering social satire NETWORK. "SOUND OF MY VOICE isn't overtly political, but it is exploring the sense of alienation that so many people feel today," says Batmanglij. "Everyone feels so disconnected. When Brit and I were starting to write this story we felt that disconnection so the idea of a tribe became very appealing."

The script, which was written about three years ago, mines the zeitgeist and anticipates some of the predominant concerns in America today. Maggie, the leader of the clandestine group, has what Marling calls "a prescription for living." "Something about that is very appealing," she explains. "Life is uncertain, and we're all confused as to what we're doing here. There's a systemic failure in the economy and in much of the way in which our world is structured. Maggie claims to have answers that will give your life instant purpose and meaning. Of course you want to go down the basement stairs and find out what they are."

Together, Marling and Batmanglij developed a whimsical signature for the group: an elaborate handshake that the members of Maggie's "family" use to identify themselves. "The handshake was important for us because the group in the basement is a family of lost souls and these rituals are meant to show that you're on the inside," says the director. "It is a very powerful symbol for Maggie and they've all learned it as a sign of allegiance. People laugh when they first see it, but you eventually understand its importance," Batmanglij points out. "Later in life, people split off and form their own families. It's less about religion or mysticism and more about a community of shared belief."

As part of the writing process, Batmanglij and Marling shared articles, poetry and ideas that interested them and incorporated much of that into the text. "We were writing freely and the story just came," he says. "I can't tell you where Brit's viewpoint leaves off and mine begins in the film. We were both very interested in the idea of belief. How can you find something to believe in? The idea of believing in a time traveler seems so outlandish and yet it gives this group a lot of solace."

"If someone took me to that basement, I would likely not believe at first," he admits. "But I asked myself what it would take for me to believe? Skepticism is very interesting because skeptics are people who want to be believers but they're afraid if they believe in something that proves not to be true, their whole sense of reality will be shattered."

Marling takes that idea a step further. "I think skeptics are really deeply romantic," she says. "Their skepticism is a wall to protect that romantic interior. They don't want to be proven wrong because they don't want to find out find out that the world is not magical or extraordinary."

The yearning to believe is what defines their protagonist, Peter, who longs to break out of his conventional life and create an expose with the documentary he and his girlfriend Lorna are making about Maggie and her followers. "It is a coming-of-age story for Peter," says Marling. "He is a hard-headed man of reason who suddenly finds himself faced with something that seems utterly impossible. Peter could easily be a one-note character. What's really underneath that? People are always such contradictions. They're not perfect paradigms of themselves."

By the end of the film, the audience will be wondering along with Peter and Lorna about whether or not Maggie is what she claims. "SOUND OF MY VOICE leaves some unanswered questions, but I think it's fun for people to have something to talk about as they leave," says Batmanglij. "I want there to be room for discussion and for people to have different opinions. Nothing we've done in the movie is accidental."

"I believe that a movie is primarily about its ending," says Marling. "The two hours that the audience sits through should be engaging and compelling, but for me, a movie is all about the end and we can't sit down to write a movie without having cracked that. The whole time you sit there, you are getting to a place where something opens in you and a new idea enters. Those are the kinds of films we're interested in."

Maggie and her Followers

Brit Marling burst onto the indie film scene at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival with formidable roles in two films she both starred in and co-wrote, SOUND OF MY VOICE and ANOTHER EARTH.

In SOUND OF MY VOICE, she is maternal and nurturing, fragile and vulnerable, manipulative and cruel as the complex and charismatic Maggie. At times an ordinary girl with chipped fingernail polish, she can transform in a moment into someone extraordinary and otherworldly. "And then she becomes the most motherly Madonna figure," Marling says of her character. "The contrast is so interesting. She embodies a lot of different archetypal female roles in one package."

The character of Maggie took shape gradually, she says. "It took us a while to find her. We had Peter and Lorna and the journey they were going to go on pretty quickly, but Maggie was always a placeholder. At some point, we wrote a scene in which she's taking herbal medications and smoking a cigarette at the same time. With that, Maggie and all her contradictions just appeared."

Marling researched the character by watching documentaries and reading about the Jonestown Massacre, David Koresh and the Children of God. "I found that a lot of the leaders were ex-actors or ex-preachers," she says. "There's something about theatricality and a love of an audience that is common to them all. It is difficult to hold their followers' attention, to have that energy that keeps everyone on their toes but never allows them to fully unravel the mystery themselves. They all seem to have something that keeps people endlessly interested and intoxicated and wanting to know more."

Maggie's gift is that she can identify what makes a person tick almost instantly, according to Marling. "She psychologically breaks people down the way a really amazing therapist would do after about 60 sessions, only she gets at the heart of their vulnerability right away. After she opens them up, she offers them a family and tells them she can prepare them for the future and keep them safe, because they are her chosen ones. Isn't that what everyone wants to hear? That they're special. They're loved. Their life has meaning."

Marling, as Maggie, is joined on screen by Christopher Denham as Peter and Nicole Vicius as Lorna, a couple whose relationship shifts and deteriorates as they are drawn deeper into Maggie's world. "They realized those roles so completely," Marling says. "There was such an equality in their relationship. They're a boy-girl detective team, a couple making this documentary together, but both their relationship and the documentary start to unravel as Maggie exerts her influence."

Christopher Denham, who has delivered strong supporting performances in big-budget successes like CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR and SHUTTER ISLAND, tackled his first starring role with confidence. "Chris is such a chameleon that he blends into every role he plays," says Batmanglij. "His truthfulness informs all of his work. At the beginning of SOUND OF MY VOICE, he's a steadfast non-believer and, in that way, he represents the audience."

His evolution also reflects the audience's point of view, as he falls under the sway of a charismatic mentor. "Chris did an amazing job finding the heartbeat of Peter," says Marling. "Peter throws up this hard-headed, reasonable edge. That's an interesting duality in his nature. He wants to prove Maggie is a fraud, but he also but he wants to believe."

The story is full of surprises that hooked Denham. His character is a would-be filmmaker with a day job as a schoolteacher. "He starts out dubious of Maggie's claims, but his journey from skepticism to faith is central to the movie," Denham notes. "It is an honest exploration of faith, which is not something we typically see in films.

"Maggie has constructed a pseudo-family from a group of rootless people are who searching for something she promises she can give them," he adds. "That kind of situation can be dangerous. Suddenly you're willing to do things maybe you weren't willing to do before and your moral boundaries become a little bit more ambiguous. What would you do for someone you love blindly? The group is an allegorical device, but the script asks broader questions about blind allegiance to an idea. And it addresses the paranoia that exists in our culture now."

In the end, their involvement with Maggie rocks the couple's relationship. "Peter and Lorna have been telling themselves a lot of convenient lies, as most of us do," says Denham. "They maintain the appearance of a healthy relationship, but there is a lot Peter hasn't told her about himself, a lot of hidden pain and Maggie pries it out of him. In a sense, he falls in love with Maggie. I don't think it's the conventional love that he shares with Lorna. He wouldn't ask her out on a date. She becomes a de facto parent for him."

For the role of Lorna, Batmanglij wanted an actress whose work the audience was unlikely to be familiar with. "We wanted Lorna to be very real," says Batmanglij. "So we didn't want anyone too recognizable. Brit and I remembered Nicole Vicius from the film HALF NELSON. She has a three- or four-minute scene with Ryan Gosling. Their exchange is electric. Nicole has such a truth and honesty to her. You really feel her brokenness by the end."

When Peter and Lorna first arrive in Maggie's basement, Lorna plays devil's advocate, wondering if it is possible for someone to visit from the future. As Maggie's scenarios play out, though, she sees Peter drifting away. "Peter and Lorna love each other, but they go to a dangerous place that tests the whole thing," says Vicius. "When a couple find themselves in a new and unknown situation, they can either come together or fall apart."

Finally, Lorna decides to take matters into her own hands, precipitating a crisis for all concerned. "What I love about Lorna is she has so much urgency" says Marling. "I love girl characters with urgency. Peter has been this lighthouse that she's drawn to, but she begins to find her own way at the end."

For Vicius, making the movie offered a revelation much like Lorna experienced with Maggie's group. "You think you know how you're going to feel or what you're going to do. But in reality that all falls away and you're left with the truth of the experience. Even though you've read a script and you know what's coming next, it's still revealing itself to you in a way that you don't expect. It was actually happening in that moment for me."

Batmanglij is grateful to have such an accomplished cast for his debut feature. "All of the actors in SOUND OF MY VOICE are extraordinary talents," says Batmanglij. "Every single person in the group feels very real and authentic to me. As a viewer, you feel their emotions deeply."

Maggie's World

SOUND OF MY VOICE was made on a shoestring budget by filmmakers so determined to get their story on the screen they used whatever means necessary, even buying and returning equipment every two weeks, only to have to buy it again the next day. "It was very challenging to keep morale going," says Batmanglij. "We had no idea whether anyone was ever going see the movie. But we kept climbing up the mountain every day, bit by bit, without thinking about how it would be received. It's a great feeling when everyone you're working with is doing it because they want to be doing it. From the prop people to the costume designer to the actors, none of this was for a paycheck."

But even with an almost nonexistent budget, Batmanglij managed to put a fine finish on his first feature film. "We put a lot of energy into the details of the movie, including not giving it any breadth," says the director. "It's deliberately pretty claustrophobic. You don't actually get to see Peter and Lorna drive to Maggie's house. The basement is shut pretty tight and we're always cutting, so you feel disoriented and closed in."

The house itself has the anonymous feel of generic new construction that would fit in at any suburban development in America. "There's something eerie to me about the mundane," Batmanglij continues. "It has an ethereal quality. Sometimes when you're driving around California, you see all these tract houses that look exactly the same. It will be twilight and the lights are just coming on. There are miles of the exact same house. I find something really beautiful about that."

The director used color to add cohesion to his sparely furnished sets. "I wanted the color of tea as the overarching color of the movie," says Batmanglij. "I was also obsessed with the idea of white on white with beige carpeting and the white walls."

As with most ultra-low budget films, many of the locations had to be grabbed on the fly. When he needed a shot of someone arriving at LAX, the director, along with his director of photography and actor, flew to San Francisco, then turned around and flew back. However, for the film's tense climax, which takes place at the Page Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles that encompasses the landmark La Brea Tar Pits, he did get permission to shoot on site. "Our story had to peak at the La Brea Tar Pits," says Batmanglij. "Brit and I had been there for a research field trip and we'd seen a timeline that went from the age of the dinosaurs all the way to the present. We thought that it was a perfect place for a movie about a supposed time traveler to culminate."

Marling credits the director with creating a distinctive, high-end look for the film. "Zal has incredible taste," she says. "He is so good at everything to do with filmmaking--music, production design, cinematography, costumes, makeup, character and story, everything macro and micro. We worked together writing this, but the way he has realized it takes it to an extraordinary unimagined space. I feel so lucky that I got to watch that happen."

About the Cast and Filmmakers

Christopher Denham (Peter Aitken)

Chicago native Christopher Denham recently completed production on Ben Affleck's latest directorial feature film, ARGO and the thriller, THE BAY directed by Barry Levinson. Other film credits include, SHUTTER ISLAND, ENTER NOWHERE, RESTIVE, DUPLICITY (alongside Julia Roberts and Clive Owen), CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, CAMP HELL, BOTTLEWORLD, and EL CAMINO. He made his feature directorial and writing debut with HOME MOVIE, starring Adrian Pasdar. Television credits include "Person of Interest", "Rubicon", "Law & Order", "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit" and the movie of the week, "Two Families". On stage, Denham appeared on Broadway with Danny Glover in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Master Harold and the Boys and in Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore. His Off-Broadway credits include Wintertime and Adam Rapp's Red Light Winter, for which Denham won a Lucille Lortel Award. Denham's first play, Cagelove played at the Rattlestick under the direction of Adam Rapp.

Nicole Vicius (Lorna Michaelson)

Growing up in Queens and Long Island, Nicole is a native New Yorker and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Psychology from Hunter College. She was cast in her first feature film, LAST DAYS, by director Gus Van Sant and co-starred alongside Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas & Asia Argento. From there she was cast in a series of independent films including HALF NELSON starring Ryan Gosling , DELIRIOUS where she played the hysterical overacting reality star, directed by Tom Dicillio (LIVING IN OBLIVION), the controversial film DESCENT starring Rosario Dawson, ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE where she starred as Sadie, the gritty radical feminist lesbian, by director Jamie Babbit (BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER) and DOUCHEBAG by director Drake Doremus, which premiered in the Sundance Film Festival competition. Additional film credits include: 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, and HOW I GOT LOST. Nicole has also done a series of television shows including: "Law & Order", "CSI: Crime Scene Investigator", "The Cleaner", "Rescue Me" and "My Boys". Nicole is presently living in Los Angeles.

Brit Marling (Maggie/ Written By/ Produced By)

Brit is a rising actress, writer and producer, whose emerging talent made an indelible mark at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival as the first female multi-hyphenate to have two films premiere side by side.

Upcoming, Marling can also be seen in Nicholas Jarecki's financial thriller ARBITRAGE, starring opposite Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Laetitia Casta. The film follows a desperate hedge fund magnate (Gere), trying to complete the sale of his financial empire before it's revealed that he is guilty of fraud. A grave error forces him to turn to an unlikely ally for help. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Marling is currently in post-production in Fox Searchlight's THE EAST, which she also co-wrote and co-produced. Starring alongside Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgard, Marling plays Sarah, a contract worker who is tasked with infiltrating an anarchist group, only to find herself falling for its leader.

Prior to that, Marling wrapped production on THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, directed and co-produced by Robert Redford. The thriller, also featuring Redford, Shia LaBeouf, and Stanley Tucci, centers on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity.

Marling's first feature length narrative film, ANOTHER EARTH, premiered at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category. Directed by Mike Cahill, Marling stars, co-wrote and co-produced the film. "ANOTHER EARTH tells the story of an ambitious young student Rhoda Williams' (Marling). On the night of the world's discovery of a new planet, her life crosses paths with an accomplished composer, John Burroughs' (William Mapother) in a tragic accident. Stripped of their former lives and hopes, the two begin an unlikely love affair and contemplate possibilities for a new existence together. But as cosmic events unfold, the secret that brought them together threatens to tear them apart.

Marling's foray into filmmaking started during her college years at Georgetown University, as she began writing and starring in projects that her friends were working on. This introduction led Marling to take a leave of absence from school, moving to Havana, Cuba to co-direct the documentary BOXERS AND BALLERINAS, which followed young artists and athletes living in the communist country. Marling graduated valedictorian from Georgetown, having studied Economics and Studio Art. Her work experience included a stint as an investment-banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Realizing that acting and filmmaking was what she found most fulfilling, Marling followed her passion and moved to Los Angeles, where she currently resides.

Zal Batmanglij (Directed By/ Written By)

In 2012 Variety listed Zal as one of their Top 10 Directors to Watch. Currently, he is editing his new film THE EAST which stars his longtime collaborator Brit Marling alongside Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page. Batmanglij grew up in Washington DC and studied anthropology at Georgetown University. He was a directing fellow at the American Film Institute where he was voted by his peers to speak at graduation.

Hans Ritter (Produced By)

Hans has produced over a dozen feature films including the critically acclaimed HARD CANDY starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson and MYSTERIOUS SKIN directed by Gregg Araki, which was named one of the top 10 films of 2004 by A.O. Scott of the New York Times. Ritter also produced Araki's next film, SMILEY FACE, as well as Tommy O'haver's AN AMERICAN CRIME, which starred Ellen Page and garnered an Emmy® nomination for Katherine Keener. He went on to head the physical production arm of First Look Studios before setting up shop at Skyscraper Film. While he has been there, Ritter has produced films such as HELLO, I MUST BE GOING starring Melanie Lynskey, Bythe Danner and Dan Futterman, which premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and BETWEEN US starring Julia Stiles, Melissa George, Taye Diggs and David Harbor, which is finishing post-production and will be ready for a summer 2012 release.

Shelley Surpin (Produced By)

A Stanford graduate, Shelley co-founded the Media Access Center, a San Francisco Bay area documentary production company which pioneered the use of hand held portable video recording in the1970's. She later received a law degree from Boalt Hall at the University of California at Berkeley and has practiced entertainment law for over twenty years as a partner at Surpin & Mayersohn, LLP. The firm focuses on transactions relating to film finance, development, production and distribution, including representation of numerous independent filmmakers and production companies. She is Chair of SubSCREEN, the LosAngeles County Bar Subcommittee for Film & Television Screen Entertainment, and also serves on the Executive Board of Stanford in Entertainment. She participated in the First International Animation Forum at Zhengzhou, China. As associate producer on THE DOOM GENERATION and NOWHERE and co-producer on PRAGUE DUET, she has worked closely with clients to help realize their vision on the screen.

Eric Richter (Executive Producer)

A long time film aficionado, Eric is a portfolio manager in Washington D.C. Richter has an A.B. in English from Princeton, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.A. in Art History from George Washington University.

Victoria Guenier (Executive Producer)

Victoria is Senior Vice President of Television Production at the advertising agency Deutsch. Producing commercials for over 15 years, she has covered major brands around the world including Microsoft, IBM and Motorola. She has overseen many iconic commercials such as this year's Mini Darth commercial for Volkswagon -- one of the most popular commercials in recent history. She recently partnered with her husband, Hans Ritter in the company Skyscraper Content. This year she executive produced HELLO I MUST BE GOING through Skyscraper films. It premiered at the 2012 dramatic US Film Competition at Sundance and will be released by Oscilloscope. She is currently in post-production on BETWEEN US. Guenier is based in Los Angeles. She continues to love and produce commercials as her day job.

Rachel Morrison (Cinematography)

Rachel has emerged as a refreshing young talent at the forefront of independent cinema. Lighting with a heightened realism, Morrison strives to tell the story by channeling core emotion into raw imagery. Her work has a haunting quality at times and a beautiful elegance at others.

Morrison lensed three Sundance Film Festival premieres in the past two years and her work will also appear at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival with the world premiere of ANY DAY NOW, starring Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt.

After completing a Masters degree in cinematography at the American Film Institute, Morrison honed her craft lensing for television. She received an Emmy nomination for her work on Showtime's "Riker's High," a documentary about a high school within the Riker's Island prison system.

A mixture of heady and hip, Morrison uses her own experience to inform her cinematography. She cites an early loss as the inspiration to preserve time through frozen imagery and to imagine the impossible. She is grateful to have discovered a passion and a talent in cinematography.

Morrison travels between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Silver Lake Hills.

Scott Enge (Production Designer)

Scott is a production designer of film, television, commercials, and music videos.

He received his Bachelors of Architecture from Virginia Tech, where he also minored in Building Construction and Industrial Design. His ten year career in the architecture and home construction industry culminated in a forty five hundred square foot custom home in north east Pennsylvania, which he designed, oversaw the construction, and also did much of the carpentry himself.

Scott then moved to Los Angeles where he's worked as a production designer ever since, and has designed numerous features and television shows, as well as the 15th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards. He is a member of the Art Directors Guild.

Tamara Meem (Edited By)

Tamara recently cut the feature film I AM I, directed by and starring Jocelyn Towne, and the Tribeca Film Festival short MR STRACHE, directed by Jac Schaeffer and starring Amy Smart. She also co-edited Francis dela Torre's feature film SUBJECT: I LOVE YOU, starring Briana Evigan. Tamara has worked in post-production in New York City, her native Sydney, and Los Angeles, where she currently lives. She directed, edited and animated the short film THE FIRST THING I REMEMBER, which received the Dendy Award for Best Experimental Film at the Sydney Film Festival, a SMPTE award for Best Use of Technology, and the Peoples' choice award at the Bondi Film Festival, and was televised on SBS, Australia. She has edited many award-winning short films, including THE INDUSTRIAL GUIDE TO DATING, UNLOCKED, DEBUT, TURN and LATE SHIFT. She was awarded Best Film Editing at the St Kilda Film Festival, Australia, for SHADOWPLAY. She has also worked as an assistant editor on many films including DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS, THE GREATEST and SUBURBAN MAYHEM. Tamara has a Master of Arts (Film and Television) specializing in Film Editing (drama) from the prestigious Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and a Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) from the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Rostam Batmanglij (Music By)

Rostam is a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist in the Grammy® nominated band, Vampire Weekend. He is one of the band's songwriters, and the band's producer. He is also the co-leader of Discovery, a project with Wes Miles from Ra Ra Riot. Batmanglij studied music at Columbia and after college wrote music for several short films while working on Vampire Weekend's first album. He is currently working on an album on his own as well as the follow up to Vampire Weekend's sophomore album, Contra, which debuted at number one in America in January 2010.

Sarah de sa Rego (Costume Designer)

Born in Paris to a Brazilian writer and a Southern photographer, Sarah spent most of her early years traveling Europe and South America. After settling in New Mexico for high school, she moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to pursue costume design in film.

Her work includes numerous Sundance films including WORLD'S GREATEST DAD and SLEEPING DOGS LIE, as well as studio films like JACKASS NUMBER 2 and JACKASS 2.5 and a number of television shows for MTV and Comedy Central.

As a costumer she has worked on a number of other films and TV shows including "Ringer", "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "Desperate Housewives". She has also styled numerous music videos and national commercials for bands like Opeth and The Golden Republic, and products including Kraft macaroni and cheese, Motorola, and Orbitz gum.

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